They park differently here

Under the golden Sun
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
May 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

At the end of a long day on the road, we pull into a hotel far from home and step out into a crumbling parking lot.

In between unloading and heading inside, I notice the parking structure next door and soon enough find myself wandering over to get a closer look.

It’s an unassuming, also-crumbling concrete block structure, worn down after decades of exposure near the northern edge of a Great Lake. A car badly in need of a muffler barks to life on the other side of the facade just as a ship’s horn wails in the distance.

My first inclination is that this forgotten piece of architectural mediocrity really isn’t much to look at. Yet here I find myself doing just that, unable to move away from this spot. My fingers trace the giant blocks, almost feeling the quiet harshness of the life they’ve led.

I think it’s the golden hour Sun, and the way it bathes the otherwise unremarkable building in soothing light. I can feel the warmth through my fingertips.

I’m reminded of why the plain and ignored are never really plain, and don’t deserve to be ignored. Because their entire story is never really told until the influence of others is allowed to wash over them.

Perhaps this moment was about a parking structure. Perhaps it was about all of us, as well.

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